MOSCOW, December 15 (RIA Novosti) - Monaco's Prince Albert II and the president of Russia's Buryatia Republic could dive to the bottom of Lake Baikal in 2009 as part of a research trip, a leading expedition member said Monday. (Photo tour with RIA Novosti: Lake Baikal)

"There is a possibility that Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn and Prince Albert II will attend the submersion. Should this go ahead, the project will receive new funding possibilities," Arnold Tulokhonov, the director of the Baikal Institute of Nature Management at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said at a session of the Baikal preservation fund.

East Siberia's Baikal, called the Sacred Sea by locals for its size and beauty, is the world's oldest and deepest lake, having been formed an estimated at 25 million years ago. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it holds around 20% of the planet's freshwater and is home to hundreds of unique species of fauna and flora.

Two mini-subs used to explore the bottom of Lake Baikal in East Siberia made 52 dives in July-September 2008 as part of the first stage of an in-depth study of Baikal. Many questions still remain unanswered, including the origins of the lake and the unique organisms that inhabit it.

During the dives, researchers also took samples of oil that seeps through cracks in the lake's bedrock and is digested by the lake's organisms.

The second stage of the expedition will start in the spring of 2009, and a total of 160 deepwater dives are planned over the two years of research.